Assignment 2 Question 3

I have been real naughty with this one and used the SimpleDateFormat class, which make the whole thing so much easier.

Will I be penalised for it. Who have tried this before in assignments, and what happened? Surely if the facility is there to be used, why ignore it.

I don't see this as a problem. Isn't the point of this module OOP? Re-usability is a key feature of Object-oriented programming, so I'd be surprised if you were penalised.

Not that I've tried it in an assignment. Not yet, anyway.

My 2/100, I used the swap function from the STL, last year in C++ and the marker gave me a red line with a snotty comment... "where is the swap function defined".

I think the markers in some cases aren't to clued up, and cant interpret anything that isn't exactly like it is on the memo... Another case... One of the questions asked to sort a array and then print it in descending order... The memo solution was to change the sort algorithm. I reused my ascending sort from the previous program and looped through the array in reverse order (i--) Again red lines with snootty comments about how did you get the right answer if you sort is ascending and not descending

So I'm very sceptical to apply my skill that I acquire through studying, sense everything just get red lines

You have to keep in mind the objectives of the assignment,
which is to use the tools GIVEN to you to solve a problem.

Going and fetching your own or better tools is essentially
cheating or atleast missing the point.

They aren't testing if you have previous or "superior"
knowledge in the subject. To me the skill is in using the
limited resources and getting the correct result.

Using some shortcut function because you're to lazy
to figure out the proper solution and expecting marks
is very arrogant.

And anyway, the solution to this question using the given
classes is only a few lines, very simple and takes like 2 minutes...

========================
assert( MyBrain != null)

A bit snotty to presume that I am lazy. As far as I am aware, part of studying a subject is doing something called 'research'. We are not some ignorant grade ones anymore that needs to be hold by the hands. God knows I've seen a few programmers of those type through the years. After all, aren't they trying to teach students to think for themselves.

In the end I gave them the solution as they requested, as well as the better way to do it.

how did you guys do in the first assignment? I only got 34%

Your marks look like my MAT103 & MAT111 marks

At least I normally get 90+ for the programming stuff (Haven't received my mark yet)

@Toxic Mouse, I can't see how you can consider using standard classes that ships with the package to be cheating! That's just ridiculous! Lets all go and define our own string class just because we can. "To me the skill is in using the
limited resources and getting the correct result." - I consider the java classes and the STL of C++ to be part of the limited resources, really. If they want to test if you can do it their way they should say so explicitly (which they sometimes do), else they shouldn't mark correct and better code incorrect. If they don't understand the code they should rather do some research and see if the student didn't thought the teacher something.

Unfortunately in programming there is almost never just one way of accomplishing a task, they should know it, and either ask restrictive questions or be open to alternative solutions!

@rdebruyn - As you say, when it comes to programming there are lots of ways to solve a problem.
And I'll admit that the wait the lecturers ask the questions often leaves a lot to be desired, but I also
think that the majority of us are intelligent enough to know how closely to follow the desired solution.

And I mean the subject isn't about how many functions you can remember it's about testing a specific
skill, normally the scope of this test is very narrow. And I don't understand what is to be gained from
stepping outside of the scope of the question and essentially trumping the answer.

And if you're someone who normally gets 90% for programming assigments you should be intelligent
enough to understand the boundries of the question and solve it within those boundries.

It's also obvious that you aren't going to learn anything from this module as you probably already know
how to code very successfully and really only need credit towards your degree. That in mind you should
be aiming towards a good mark and not trying to get recognition for your previous knowledge.

========================
assert( MyBrain != null)

assert error: objecy MyBrain not defined

I maybe went a bit overboard on my first assignment. I have put way too much detail into the class diagrams; the first 2 questions took me a long time to complete; but at least in the end it was worth it. I got 92 for assignment 1.

rdebruyn Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
<One of
> the questions asked to sort a array and then print
> it in descending order... The memo solution was to
> change the sort algorithm. I reused my ascending
> sort from the previous program and looped through
> the array in reverse order (i--) Again red lines
> with snootty comments about how did you get the
> right answer if you sort is ascending and not
> descending
>
> So I'm very sceptical to apply my skill that I
> acquire through studying, sense everything just
> get red lines
HAHA, I got the same thing last year :'(

@Randal Flag: Yeah man I got 40% for the first assignment and I am waiting in much anticipation for the solutions because my coding was all correct, and my UML was also flawless. The UML (as explained in the textbook) is EXTREMELY vague and ultimately useless. I answered the UML questions based on what I learnt from 3 software engineering courses at UKZN and a textbook that was superb, so I know my UML wasnt erroneous...

Glad im not the only one that got a kak mark.

I got my marked assignment back. For question 1 i got 3/10, question 2 4/10, and question 3 10/10. But my final mark is 17 out of 50.

Still waiting on my results... but all your comments are making me quite worried.

Posted this on the myUnisa discussion forum:
"I just received my marked assignment and have been looking over it. I cant make out much of the markers handwriting (Every 3rd word perhaps?). I dont know how a decent UML diagram is expected with the vagueness of UML in the text book. Anyway, I used a UML textbook I had from studying at a different institution as reference. This extremely complete and well recommended text book was no good apparently. The amount of detail in the model answer is quite hectic. I dont know how the students are supposed to be capable of that with the textbook in use.

I had a comment about the last diagram, which said ticket should not inherit from flight details. This confuses me. A flight has a flight number, seat numbers, times etc, and the ticket has these details printed on it. How is the ticket supposed to get these details? A ticket is a 1-1 mapping of a seat on a flight.

Unless a ticket is a complex object that is valid for all flights and seats. Which it is not."

A Booking may have 1 or more Tickets, and each Ticket may contain the Flight Details as well as the Passenger Details.